Patch 4.0.1 - PTR Build 13162
One of the most exciting PTR build is being deployed on test realms, the amazing amount of changes will keep you busy for hours, or even days, it's just amazing! (Note: I might be using sarcasm.)

World of Warcraft Reaches 12 Million Players!
"Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated."

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker)

IRVINE, Calif. -- October 7, 2010 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announced today that the subscriber base for World of Warcraft®, its award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), now exceeds 12 million players worldwide. This milestone was reached in the wake of the mainland Chinese launch of World of Warcraft's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King®, and also as global anticipation continues to mount for the December 7 release of the game's third expansion, Cataclysm™.

"The support and enthusiasm that gamers across the world continue to show for World of Warcraft reaffirms our belief that it offers one of the best entertainment values available today," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We are as committed as ever to taking the game to new heights, and we look forward to demonstrating that with Cataclysm in December."

Since debuting in North America, Australia, and New Zealand on November 23, 2004, World of Warcraft has become the most popular subscription-based MMORPG around the world. It was the bestselling PC game of 2005 and 2006 worldwide, and finished behind only World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade®, the first expansion pack for the game, in 2007. For 2008, the World of Warcraft series represented three of the top five bestselling PC games, with Wrath of the Lich King finishing the year at #1, and in 2009, World of Warcraft titles claimed three of the top six spots.*

World of Warcraft is currently available in eight languages and is played in North America, Europe, mainland China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Chile, Argentina, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

To keep pace with the continued growth of World of Warcraft as well as development on other Blizzard Entertainment games, the company is currently hiring for numerous open positions. More information on career opportunities available at Blizzard Entertainment can be found at www.blizzard.com/jobs.

For further information on World of Warcraft, The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and Cataclysm, please visit the official website at www.worldofwarcraft.com.

Battle.net Authenticator Change

Originally Posted by Lylirra
(Blue Tracker)

To help keep Battle.net accounts as secure as possible, we’ve recently changed how Battle.net authenticators can be used. Going forward, Battle.net authenticators can now only be associated with one Battle.net account at a time. No changes are being made to how many game licenses a single Battle.net account can support. You can still have multiple World of Warcraft accounts under a single Battle.net account, for instance, and all game licenses linked with a Battle.net account will still be protected if an authenticator is in use.

Those of you who currently have more than one Battle.net account associated with a single authenticator will be able to maintain your existing setup without needing to do anything. This change will only affect new authenticator attachments. But, if at some point you decide to detach the authenticator from any of your Battle.net accounts for any reason, you won't be able to reattach it if it's already associated with another Battle.net account.

Cataclysm actually adds a couple of security features linked to the authenticator, you can now restrict guild ranks to people using Authenticators.

AUTHENTICATOR_CONFIRM_GUILD_DEMOTE = "%1$s can't be demoted to %2$s because that rank requires an Authenticator. Do you wish to demote %1$s to %3$s?";

AUTHENTICATOR_CONFIRM_GUILD_PROMOTE = "%1$s can't be promoted to %2$s because that rank requires an Authenticator. Do you wish to promote %1$s to %3$s?";

AUTHENTICATOR_GUILD_RANK_CHANGE = "This action would make the lowest guild rank require an Authenticator.";

AUTHENTICATOR_GUILD_RANK_IN_USE = "You can't set this option on a guild rank in use.";

AUTHENTICATOR_GUILD_RANK_LAST = "You can't set this option on the lowest guild rank.";

There was also another weird authentication added to the game files a while back, it might be for internal use only and I decided it would be safer to hide the phone number just to make sure that I don't make Blizzard very sad.

PHONESECURE_ENH_TEXT = "For security reasons, please call +x-xxx-xxx-xxx from the phone registered on this account to validate this login attempt, and enter your PIN as well as the following security code: %d.";

PHONESECURE_HEADER = "Phone Call Required";

PHONESECURE_TEXT = "Please call %s from your registered phone, and enter your PIN as well as the following security code: %s.";#

PHONESECURE_WAITING = "Waiting for authorization... %d";

BlizzCon 48-Hour Sale: Shop Before the Show

Originally Posted by Zarhym
(Blue Tracker)

Heading to BlizzCon 2010? Planning to purchase some souvenirs at the show? From October 9 at 10 a.m. Pacific time until October 11 at 9:59 a.m., BlizzCon 2010 ticket holders will have the opportunity to purchase select BlizzCon 2010 store merchandise online (while supplies last). Items purchased through this sale will be shipped directly to your home, giving you more time to take in the panels, tournaments, and other events at the show. To participate, log in to the online Blizzard Store during the sale hours using the Battle.net account provided when you purchased your BlizzCon 2010 ticket (viewable in the buyer's Order History), and head to the More Products section. A second 48-hour sale for BlizzCon Virtual Ticket purchasers will be taking place beginning October 13 -- place your order by October 10 to participate.

Edit...
I see what your saying, you can use a Java emulator to have a fake authenticator, which is much more vulnerable to hackers. I don't think doing this will be too popular, and it will be a lot of work on hacker's part to detect the few users that do this.

Nah, he's trying to say that it doesn't affect hackers because they can generate new Authenticator serials in under a minute using an emulator.

That isn't true though, at least for the Android Emulator, because it is linked to your Google account. This change was most certainly made to deter hacking, so hackers can't bind 150158 accounts with one Authenticator.

For people that say "omg, i gotta buy an authenticator now, BUHU" if you haven't gotten one yet, u should buy one now, or do you wanna wait until AFTER you get hacked and then complain about it taking long to get your characters/stuff/gold back?

Not all of us play on a "supported" platform. For example I run a 64bit install of linux, and use WINE to play wow. I surf with adblock/noscript/flashblock and firefox. Chances of having a keylogger on my computer targeting wow are low. Also even if I have a authenticator it doesn't protect me completely against key loggers. If i type it into the compromised machine all that needs to happen is for the logger to mess with the auth packets to bliz's servers and then log in using the plaintext versions that i typed in for them.[1] The phone auth parts intrigue me as it is much harder to find out both my fob authenticator and to know how to spoof my phone number, and which number to use. Also I think that caller ID faking is a federal offense in the USA. Anyways, I think that this will in effect help protect gbanks, and such, but I also think the retail boxes of Cata should just have a authenticator in them.

Authenticator change is kinda stupid, here in europe you can only pay with credit card - there is just a little problem; here in germany most people don't have credit cards (we have something similar, I think it's called debit card?).

ABOUT AUTHENTICATORS..
This is a bad idea that only affects the honest ppl. Hackers can use the JAVA emulator on their PC to generate a new code every time they need to hack a new account. Us gamers, if we have, lets say... 2 accounts and use something like a mobile authenticator we will have to buy a NEW DAM PHONE just to keep the 2nd authenticator.
Can I just ask who had this bright idea.... /facepalm

About the lock changes
I couldn't care less

well if you have money for two or more accounts, one more authenticator wouldn't kill you.

ABOUT AUTHENTICATORS..
This is a bad idea that only affects the honest ppl. Hackers can use the JAVA emulator on their PC to generate a new code every time they need to hack a new account. Us gamers, if we have, lets say... 2 accounts and use something like a mobile authenticator we will have to buy a NEW DAM PHONE just to keep the 2nd authenticator.
Can I just ask who had this bright idea.... /facepalm

About the lock changes
I couldn't care less

Androidusers can download either FlexAuth (free) or mAuth ($2) wich both supports multiple tokens for Battle.net account.
They both have a backup function for you tokens aswell, incase something will happen to your phone.
Not sure if theres anything for iPhone yet.